Dutch Rap Game

The last few years have seen a strong increase in public interest in the Dutch rap game. Many young men have started a rap career, and many come from poorer neighbourhoods. Only the more commercial rap songs are played on the radio or get exposure on national television. The rappers from the street who go against the establishment are still mostly ignored. Rappers are often associated with gangs, crime and lowly educated boys from ethnic minorities. A lot of young Dutch rappers have a North African background or are black.

The quality of Dutch rap music has increased the last couple of years and is quite high at the moment. It is very popular now, and it receives a lot of attention from the media. Also the number of views on youtube, spotify etc. has never been so high as now.

In the eighties, rap became popular in the United States and France. Rappers in the Netherlands followed when a few artists started to release rap songs, but they weren’t very serious. The rap tracks were intended to be funny. They had little success in the Netherlands and were forgotten quickly.

Nederhop

The group Osdorp Posse, from Amsterdam, started rapping in the Dutch language. The literal translation of the English lyrics of other rappers resulted in a comical effect. Their groundwork resulted in more Dutch rappers who tried to rap in Dutch.

Extince

Extince is a rapper from the province Noord-Brabant who released the track ‘spraakwater’ in 1995. No label could be found in the Netherlands that was interested because it differed too much from the other music that was popular at that time. Extince was not inspired by gangstarap and the record labels were more interested in that American type of rap. Kees de Koning (boss of record label TopNotch) decided to release the track with Extince. It was to become the first track that was released by TopNotch.